Razer CEO talks JB HiFi laptop partnership

The Razer Blade 14" laptop is exclusive to JB Hifi and Razer's own online store.

MCV sat down to speak to CEO Min-Liang Tan about his decision to go with JB HiFi after first partnering with them exclusively on the 17" Razer Blade last year.

How does the Razer brand fit with a brand like JB HiFi?

We’ve grown as a brand to become lifestyle to a certain extent. We’ve reached a point where we want to grow with the consumer also. Gaming is now a much broader audience than just the same old guys. It’s not just the 15 to 25s any more.

They’ve become a bit of a destination store, and we’ve been able to bring a lot of gamers in there, so it’s been a good symbiotic relationship.

Is there something specific about the way the store treats your product that made you want to come back?

We like gamers to actually touch and feel our products. Online is great, and it’s growing, but there’s still a large segment of users who really like to experience a product before it actually goes out. So this time around, we’re extending our partnership with JB HiFi and rolling out these dedicated retail racks, such that gamers can actually come, play around with the keyboard, they can test it out.

When it’s a $2700 product, they want to test it out before they purchase, and we think JB HiFi is a great partner for this.

Funnily enough, we also see a lot more gamers in Australia saying ‘we like to go shopping’ and then go have that same experience while they’re in the store when they get home. So it’s been a great experience working with JB HiFi.

What impact will the new consoles have on PC gaming?

The games that are going to be developed for Xbox One and PS4 are going to be very easily portable across to the PC. It’s not like last generation where it was totally different, but now, the consoles are pretty much like PCs themselves. With steam coming out with their own OS and everything, we think it’s a great time to be a PC gamer.

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